A Toriko Brainteaser
by DancingGrimm
Summary: A little puzzle about Komatsu's day out with the Kings.
1. Chapter 1

I love these types of logical puzzles and so decided to write one about Toriko. If you've never done one before, the idea is simple; using the clues provided match up four pieces of information, one from each set without using any twice, so that the results fit the clues provided. It's mainly done by process of elimination, but the trick is to work out what order to figure out the clues in so that everything makes sense. I've given you a hint at the bottom to start you off.

I'm going to put this up on Tumblr and FFN at the same time and see what people come up with. If you think you know the answer, send me a message. If you need a hint, leave me a comment. I'll post answers in about a week.

Also, thanks to Latenightiridescence for testing the puzzle worked for me :)

The Four Kings have travelled to the Green Hollow, a valley high in the Ripple Mountains, with Komatsu in tow. The plant and animal species that live there are reputed to be of great quality, and each member of the group is focussed on catching one ingredient in particular. Can you work out from these clues what kind of plant or animal each member of the group hunted for, how many samples of it they caught and how Komatsu decided that each ingredient should be prepared?

Hunters

Komatsu

Toriko

Coco

Sunny

Zebra

Ingredients

Pepper Mites (insect)

Sinewy Clover (plant)

Low Cloud Buzzard (bird)

Bombshell Pears (plant)

Tantrum Oryx (mammal)

Number of samples caught

4

5

7

8

10

Preparation

Roasted over a fire

Deep fried

Eaten raw

Ground to powder

Poached

1. Komatsu and Coco spent easily 20 minutes defusing a fight between Toriko and Zebra; Zebra had boasted that he was the most successful hunter of the day, having caught 10 of his target ingredient. Toriko argued that, though he had caught fewer individual creatures, the animals he was hunting were bigger than anyone else's. Neither of them had been hunting a plant ingredient.

The argument was nipped in the bud when both were offered food and became distracted.

2. Komatsu was pleasantly surprised to find an ingredient of capture level 1 that he was able to gather all by himself. The Sinewy Clover had been given its capture level because the stems of the plant are extremely difficult to cut, but anyone with a Melk knife needn't worry about trifles like that! Komatsu gathered more samples of his ingredient than Sunny did, but not as many as Coco.

3. The Bombshell Pears don't fall from their tree, nor can they be picked. The hunter has to strike the trunk in exactly the right place to make the branches fire the fruit towards the ground at high speed, hence the name. Komatsu decided to make a classic desert dish by poaching the pears in wine.

4. The ingredient that Toriko caught was best cooked by his favourite method, that of roasting over an open fire.

There were 8 samples of the ingredient that would be ground into powder and used to season other foods.

The food that would be eaten raw was one of the plants.

5. The Tantrum Oryx has a high capture level as it is a large, strong, antelope-like creature with very sharp horns, prone to violent outbursts, and a cry that sounds rather like a whiny human voice saying 'It's not fair!' Due to these factors, the hunter who targeted them had a difficult task, and ended up catching only four animals.

6. Pepper Mites are tiny but very flavoursome insects that live in the bark of trees and are almost invisible to the naked eye. Coco, however, had little trouble spotting them and had tweezered up quite a few of them before the rest of the colony noticed his presence and vanished under the bark. Coco caught exactly twice as many samples of his ingredient as Toriko.

Can you work out the answers from these clues?

Hint: to begin with, work out how many Pepper Mites Coco caught.

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Can the person who left an answer in comments PLEASE take it down, so other people can guess? If you think you know the answer then send me a message, please leave comments just for if people need a hint. I don't want to spoil it for anyone.


	2. Answers

The best place to start is to work out how many Pepper Mites Coco caught. He caught twice as much as somebody else, so the number has to be double one of the other numbers on the list, thus it can only be eight or ten. We know from clue 1 that Zebra caught ten of his target ingredient, so Coco must have caught eight. We know from clue 4 that there were eight of the ingredients that would be ground to powder and used as seasoning, so that must be the preparation method for the Pepper Mites.

As Coco caught eight ingredients, Toriko, who according to clue 6 caught half as many as him, must have caught four. We know from clue 6 that there were four Tantrum Oryx on the menu, so these must have been Toriko's prey, and clue 4 tells us that they would be prepared by roasting over an open fire.

Komatsu caught more of his ingredient than Sunny did, but fewer than Coco. As the only numbers left without a name matched to them are five and seven, Komatsu must have gathered seven Sinewy Clovers. It was a plant that was eaten raw (clue 4), and we know that this can't be the pears as they were poached (clue 3), so it must be the clovers.

Zebra caught ten of a non-plant creature. As only the pears and the buzzards remain in the list, it must have been the Low Cloud Buzzards, and the only cooking method remaining (given that the pears are to be poached) is to fry them.

Thus it was Sunny that gathered five Bombshell Pears, which Komatsu poached.

To sum up, the Kings and their favourite chef enjoyed a successful day in the Green Hollow, and settled down to a meal starting with ten fried Low Cloud Buzzards, caught by Zebra, flavoured with Pepper Mites, caught by Coco. The main course was four roasted Tantrum Oryx, caught by Toriko, served with a raw salad of seven Sinewy Clover, caught by Komatsu. Desert was five poached Bombshell Pears, caught by Sunny.

They all enjoyed their meal very much and it was a peaceful and happy evening, when all the world seemed calm and contented.

Until the monster turned up.

The end!

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Thank you to anyone who had a go at this, I know these puzzles can seem a little daunting at first glance, but they take a little practice and often turn out to be fairly straightforward. Don't feel disheartened if you tried but couldn't quite crack it. Let me know if you're interested and I'll try and write another one.

If you had a go and got the answers right, congratulations! You win ... a pine cone! Your prize is waiting for you in your local park. Please go there and collect it at your leisure.

And for the people who posted the answer in comments, I'm sorry I was a bit sharp in asking you to remove the comments, but I didn't want the answers given away too soon. Thank you for taking the comments down. You both got them absolutely correct, by the way, so good work.


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